ALCHEMY

From medieval times, alchemists strove to find seemingly magical processes of transformation, such as turning lead into gold. Their experiments intensely focused on transmutations, the change of some essential element into a superior form.The four women artists in this show have focused their alchemical investigations into transmuting photography, an art form that overwhelms how we now experience our lives and ourselves (28 billion new photos and videos are uploaded to Google very week), to an experience that is private, sensuous, elegant, spiritual.

Teri Figliuzzi, a compulsive gatherer, has a fascination and obsession with organic forms. Fields, gardens, and forests welcome and accept her. They feed her soul with tranquility and peace, and give her eyes and mind the gift of color and beauty beyond our human world. Nature’s growth and rebirth are an ever present reminder to try again and move forward. With her hands she composes foliage fragments of flowers, petals, leaves, seeds, stems and creates cyanotypes, lumens, and phytograms. Working with botanicals in this manner preserves the memories of moments surrounded by unmatched beauty and strength. It has brought her much joy and a deep appreciation for the perseverance of nature and its healing power. Her work brings focus to all stages of life and its fragility, both tangible and ethereal.

In this show, Mary Ann Glass is presenting women – how they prefer to present themselves to the world and what may lie privately underneath. Her process consists of layering and blending 5-6 layers into each image. She draws upon her portfolio of more than 400 images --photos of water and sky and planets, doodles, drawings, alchemical and astrological formulas and diagrams, old letters, renaissance portraits, etc. Her intent is to show that underneath a women’s persona lies a complex world of joy and trauma and doubt and regret and hope and survival and fantasy and ambition and grief.

Marcy Juran can get lost in the intricacy of dandelion heads gone to seed, the undulating waves of grasses lining the roadside, or patterns of light streaming through the petals of buttercups in the sun. She is intrigued by the intricacy of fern fiddleheads and the twining vines of bindweed, as well as the improbable chiseled perfection of the seeds in a milkweed pod. Her work explores the wild and untamed flora of my native New England, as she captures and collects specimens in her travels, often just minutes from her home in coastal Connecticut. Through a combination of layered scans, she creates a series of fantastical “imagined gardens”, in defiance of seasons and microclimates. Although considered weeds by many, she finds these roadside natives to be possessed of an exuberant beauty and grace often lacking in their more cultivated companions, and admire their visual fragility which often masks a surprising hardiness. As the built environment encroaches upon open space, and climate change threatens the diversity of our native species, she finds it ever more compelling to look closely and bear witness to the glory and resilience of this humble botany before it disappears under more pavement.

Laurie Peek is a practicing visual artist and photographer for over twenty-five years whose experience in photography is deep. In this exhibition, she is presenting her “In Lieu of Flowers” collection dedicated to her son Jackson and others whose funerals she could not attend. And it’s for all who've suffered the loss of a loved one.
The images are digital composites printed as pigment prints on vellum. Hand applying the gilding to the back of the prints reconnects her to the craft of film photography. Honoring past relationships and the grief of losing her child has been healing and she hopes it is healing for others. These are the flowers she was not able to send.

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 4, 2024 5-7 pm
On display through May 26, 2024
Hours: Weekdays 9-4pm; Saturday/Sunday 9-7pm

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Gallery 40, 40 Cannon Street, Poughkeepsie, United States